Safari Rallyt; Mombasa mutterings.

The Friday evening welcome party for competitors and officials was well attended. Amongst the speakers welcoming them to the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 were Surinder Thatthi, Event Director, and Titus Naikuni, CEO of Kenya Airways. The event patron, Joginder Singh, three times winner of the original East African Safari - in 1965, 1974 and 1976 - spoke on his feelings to see the classic event reviving the old traditions : "It is almost like the original Safari Rally and remains a very tough rally for man and machine". He was joined by Kipchoge "Kip" Keino, Kenya´s father of long distance running and a double Olympic Gold medallist (1,500m at Mexico City in 1968 and 3,000m steeplechase at Munich in 1972), who expressed his affinity to the endurance aspect of a rally like the Safari Classic. The evening finished with the revelation that it was Titus Naikuni´s birthday and, to the sound of music and dancing, a vast cake in the form of a Porsche 911 was carried in for him to cut and share with the competitors. Even the Ford Escort drivers had a piece, although they probably would like to devour Porsches in another sense.

The twin Escort Mexicos of Neil McGrigor and Jeremy Bennett (car nos 44 and 49) are supporting the "Alive and Kicking" charity that aims to bring sport to children throughout Africa. Thanks to their own contributions and those of family, friends and other competitors, they have already raised over three million Kenyan shillings (£25,000) and hope, with new support gathered during the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally to practically double that. They set off for the ceremonial start under the tusks on Moi avenue in Mombasa with both Escorts packed full of special "Alive and Kicking" footballs.

Dave Kedward and Crispin Sassoon have not spent tranquil days in the run up to the Safari Classic. Their Ford Escort RS1600 has been shedding cam belts and it was not until yesterday, after changing everything else on the front of the engine, that they discovered that the idler that keeps the belt wrapped firmly round the main pulleys was running out of true. A long session in a Mombasa workshop saw the idler shaft drilled and bushed and the engine is now running happily. But with two cam belts already damaged, they are anxiously awaiting the arrival of more spares of this usually reliable component from England.

Geoff Fielding confessed to having a personal contest with a local bacterium but is hoping to take solid food before the rally commences.

There were a few minor problems at scrutineering including the Triumph GT6 Mk2 of Quentin Mitchell and Russell Savage which did not have a complete fireproof bulkhead. It re-presented at scrutineering this morning and passed. This little sports car was first found covered in dust in an alley just off the Nairobi-Mombasa road last July. The preparation work on the car was finished last night and its first drive was from the workshop to scrutineering. It now appears a lot taller than its original state due to a substantial increase in its front ride height. The car has a few interesting modifications, including a hole in the bonnet to accommodate the throttle linkage pivot. Apparently the team were thinking of attaching a flag to the pivot so they would know when they are going flat out. The car will be passing near where it was first discovered when the rally starts proper tomorrow morning and heads up towards Nairobi.

Ben Muchemi and George Njoroge also have to ensure that the bulkhead in their Alfa Romeo Alfetta is fireproof to pass scrutineering after the ceremonial start whilst Jayant Shah and Lofty Drews had to properly secure the passenger seat of their 260Z. This is something which Mr Drews will probably be glad of later on in the rally, though some unkind fellow did say it had always been difficult to tie Lofty down.

Under the leadership of John Cooper, the scrutineers at the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally have managed to strike an excellent balance of meticulous application of the rules and attention to safety whilst also helping the competitors as much as possible to overcome any technical problems.

The drivers´ briefing saw the introduction of some advances in the starting system from previous years. The "traffic light" system similar to that used on the World Rally Championship will be used at all competitive section starts. As with normal traffic lights, the competitor gets a red, then red and amber, then a countdown of the last five seconds with segments of the amber light disappearing, and finally a green light. At the end of competitive sections, dust precludes the use of light beams and often obscures manual signals such as flags. Thus the Safari Classic will use a manually operated button pressed once for each car that communicates directly with the timing machinery at the stop line. After an excellent demonstration of the new system by Mike Summerfield it seems likely that the only traffic lights providing problems may be those on the entry to Nairobi.

The organisers also utilised the briefing to emphasise the camaraderie that surrounds the event in terms of stopping and reporting incidents to the marshals. If they see an accident where the crew has not displayed their "OK" board to show that they are uninjured, they are requested to stop and investigate. With one doctor flying in the helicopter and two others on the event and ambulances handy, help should never be far away. This spirit of camaraderie was supported by the announcement of a "team award" in which teams of three to five cars can be entered based on manufacturer, club, nationality or simply friendship.

Keeping cool during the rally can often be difficult with temperatures in excess of body heat inside the cockpit, but the Ford Capri of David and Sarah Rayner should be OK as they still have the original air conditioning fitted. Mind you, they needed a bit of cooling down when they discovered that the starter motor had decided not to work. Fortunately it was only the spiral slide for the drive pinion that was sticking and once this was re-lubricated, all was well again.

A last minute hitch also arose in the Peugeot 504 Coupe of Hardev Singh Sira and Uwe Kurtzenberger which developed a clutch problem and now requires work before the rally starts tomorrow.

As the cars bunched up in front of the Whitesands Sarova Hotel for their police escorted run in to the ceremonial start, Frederic Dor was seen eyeing up Ian Duncan´s Mustang which will start two minutes behind him on Monday morning. His concern ? He wondered if the American muscle car had sufficient ground clearance to pass over his Porsche 911.

Jurgen Bertl is a dyed-in-the-wool Safari fan and was here for the 2003 Safari Classic with a tiny Skoda and then in 2005 with a Porsche 911. The Porsche was sold to Iqbal Sagoo from the USA and Jurgen somehow found himself volunteering to co-drive Sagoo who is a Safari novice. Jurgen originally worked with Audi in the Quattro years and was largely responsible for the homologation of the various breeds of Group 4 and Group B Quattro. But those cars are, for the moment, too young to be admitted to the Safari Classic. He will have to wait an absolute minimum of another ten years for the cut-off date to float upwards sufficiently to embrace such Audis.

At the time of sending this release the cars are currently driving over the ramp for the ceremonial start under the tusks in Moi Avenue in Mombasa. Eight days of hard rallying lie ahead of them but it´s clear that everyone is up for the challenge.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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